Australia captain Tim Paine revisited his stance on Edgbaston ground, saluting the crowd for their passionate involvement in support of the England team during last year's Ashes.
On the eve of what was expected to be another difficult Test trip to UK for the Australian team, their skipper refused to be drawn into talks around the much-vaunted intimidation factor of the venue for all visiting sides.
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"I could name you 15 (more intimidating)," Paine had responded to the reporters' query on the same. Later, in a tweet, he even listed those venues higher in the hostility nature to him than Edgbaston.
However, even though his team ended up pulling off one of Australia's most courageous away wins in recent years and went 1-0 in the series where they later became the first set of tourists since 2001 to retain the Ashes in England, Paine said with time he realised why the spectators of Edgbaston are so well acknowledged and had a rethink about his earlier view.
"It might be in there," Paine said on the latest episode of 'The Unpayable Podcast'. "I (previously) played one game at Edgbaston and it was against Pakistan in a T20. It actually shocked me when (the journalist) asked me that question, and I was like, 'What, this ground?'. Because I'm looking at it, it's tiny, it fits 25,000, I don't think it's going to be that intimidating."
"Then yep, the next day, bang. As soon as we walked out for warm-ups, I was copping it on the way out to the nets. But I look back at that now and think 'that was really, really cool to be a part of' because that crowd was absolutely pumping, and they were into us and they were consistent."
"They went for, I won't say five days because you could hear a pin drop on day five, but the first four days they were absolutely relentless and you've got to tip your hat to that kind of support and how they just went and went and went – they did not stop from the first ball to the last ball."
The match saw the Test comeback of Steve Smith and David Warner after a year-long ban since the 2018 ball-tampering saga. The two players were received at the stadium with boos and abuse. Smith, though, responded with two great hundreds in his team's memorable win.
Paine said the jeering crowd made an uncomfortable environment for the visitors, but it is something he no more regards in bad taste.
"At the time you think, 'Geez, this is difficult, it's uncomfortable' and now I look back at it and think, 'I would never give that experience back ever again'," Paine said.
"That was something you remember for the rest of your life, the noise that crowd was making, the songs they were singing."
"Being part of a first Ashes Test in England, I think that Edgbaston crowd, the way they went about it and the way they got stuck into us just made it all the more special and have made it a lifelong memory in a good way," he concluded.
(Inputs from cricket.com.au)
